Kirsty Johnston
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Graduate Student Supervision
Doctoral Student Supervision
Dissertations completed in 2010 or later are listed below. Please note that there is a 6-12 month delay to add the latest dissertations.
This dissertation documents and analyzes the previously undocumented pedagogical practices and innovations of four North American senior teachers who together have taught over 2500 students in Western Canada over the past four decades: Dean Fogal, Linda Putnam, Kathleen Weiss, and David MacMurray Smith. In different ways, each has extended the physical theatre lineages of either French Corporeal Mime Etienne Decroux or Polish Director Jerzy Grotowski, or both. Focused on the complex issue of transmission of embodied practices, I examine the changes that Fogal and Putnam made in their own performance pedagogies after having trained directly with Decroux (Fogal) and Grotowski (Putnam). I also explore the pedagogical practices of Weiss and MacMurray Smith who both studied with Putnam, while MacMurray Smith also trained in Corporeal Mime with Jean Asselin and Denise Boulanger (who studied with Decroux for five years). This project has involved archival research and literature review, including study of Indigenous models of relational research which have influenced my approach. Following 亚洲天堂 protocols for ethical research, the thesis also builds from personal interviews, group discussions, arts-based qualitative research, and participatory collaborative research including filmed demonstrations and teaching sessions. Through the guidance and support of the 亚洲天堂 Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies Public Scholars Initiative, this thesis includes two documentary films crafted from this footage. The introductory film Swimming Back to Source provides context for understanding my connection to Decroux鈥檚 work through my father Dean Fogal. Within Chapter 3, the film Relational Performance Pedagogy documents and shares Fogal, Putnam, Weiss, and MacMurray Smith鈥檚 respective performance pedagogies, practices, and perspectives. These four teachers have developed what I term 鈥渞elational performance pedagogy鈥 as a result of principles they learned from Decroux and Grotowski as well as their own innovations from within the laboratory theatre tradition. Techniques developed by these teachers promote the autonomy and wellbeing of the actor by cultivating a capacity for what I define as portable 鈥済rounded belonging鈥 rooted in both the training/performance space itself and in the surrounding ensemble (fellow actors and audience members).
The full abstract for this thesis is available in the body of the thesis, and will be available when the embargo expires.
Vancouver鈥檚 spaces of performance are implicated in its real estate drama in ways that are unique to the city. Like characters in a play, these spaces embody and reveal dramatic urban tensions. This thesis looks at the material forces influencing Vancouver鈥檚 theatrical culture and uses a historically descriptive lens to understand that culture鈥檚 mechanisms of change. The three case studies at its core all hold space in Vancouver鈥檚 downtown neighborhood, and each one involves a distinct building, era, and socio-economic context. The first case study is focused on the dual venue of the Queen Elizabeth Theatre and the Vancouver Playhouse, which opened between 1959 and 1963. Run by civic authorities, the complex maintained a dysfunctional relationship with the resident local regional theatre the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Company, which collapsed in 2012 just shy of its 50th Anniversary. The second study centres on the 1800 seat venue launched in 1995 by Garth Drabinsky鈥檚 Livent under the name The Ford Centre for the Performing Arts. Closing after three years due to Livent鈥檚 financial scandals, it was purchased in 2001 by Four Brothers Entertainment who established a Pacific Rim identity by programming a blend of European and Asian performance forms. After years of losses, the venue was sold again in 2012 to Westside Church, a local Evangelical Christian organization, and functions now as a church. The third case study is less concerned with a theatre venue鈥檚 real estate history than with a real estate development鈥檚 link to theatre history. It explores developer Ian Gillespie鈥檚 2013 mobilization of the German modernist art concept of 鈥済esamtkunstwerk,鈥 literally 鈥渢otal work of art,鈥 in relation to his building projects. The apotheosis of this work is Vancouver House, a condominium tower with a design inspired by a stage curtain, which uses theatrical means and metaphors to make sense of its place in the city. Looking at the accumulated impact of the three case studies, the thesis concludes that there is a kind of geopathological malady that infuses spaces of large-scale theatricality in Vancouver鈥檚 downtown that contributes to their failure to thrive and to their transformation into hybrid forms.
This dissertation is a critical exploration of aging and old age in contemporary Canadian theatre. It investigates plays produced on professional stages in recent years, asking in what ways they challenge, complicate, and/or offer alternatives to deep-rooted, stereotypical decline stories of aging, as well as denaturalize other ageist narrative tropes, through aspects of their dramaturgy and/or production. Building on the emerging, but still limited, scholarly work at the intersection of theatre studies and humanities age studies, this dissertation contributes four case studies. Each has its own chapter and centres on one or two key plays. The plays address themes of aging and old age, and each contains one or more characters who have aged past midlife. All plays thematically address areas of concern within the field of age studies, such as age performativity, embodiment, age identities, temporalities of aging, aging female sexuality, age-related memory loss, intergenerational relations, and autobiography. Utilizing mixed research methods that vary across chapters, this study employs dramaturgical close reading, detailed performance analysis, reviews of critical press, analysis of archival video, and interviews with the artistic team of one production. Taken together, the case studies illustrate a range of theatrical mechanisms, both dramaturgical and performative, that function to represent age, aging and old age. At times these mechanisms re-entrench ageist belief systems, however, the unifying focus of the chapters, and primary contribution of this dissertation, is that they reveal age-conscious dramaturgies that resist the narrative of decline and other ageist stereotypes. The study鈥檚 most important original insights include: a theoretical expansion of Anne Davis Basting鈥檚 performative depth model of aging; expansion of Jill Dolan鈥檚 theory of utopian performativity as applied to autobiographical performances of aging subjects; and an approach to analysing how characters鈥 interactions with dramatic space, stage properties, and structures of time influence narratives of generational continuity or rupture and consequently narratives of aging and old age. In summary, the plays studied offer positive interventions that work to shift Canadian social imaginaries away from repressive understandings of aging and old age, and toward more expansive and socially enfranchising meanings.
Since 1995 and 2002, London鈥檚 Yellow Earth Theatre (YET) and Toronto鈥檚 fu-GEN Asian Canadian Theatre Company have been producing work under the identity labels of 鈥淏ritish East Asian theatre鈥 and 鈥淎sian Canadian theatre鈥 respectively. Emerging out of different socio-cultural contexts, the companies have nonetheless produced plays that address similar themes around mixed-race identities, immigration, and the experiences of first- and second-generation East Asians living in Britain and Canada. Despite burgeoning research on Asian Canadian theatre and British Chinese culture鈥攄evelopments that echo the pioneering directions of Asian American theatre scholarship鈥攕tudies have tended to focus exclusively on cultural work produced by East Asian artists within the national boundaries of America, Canada and Australia. Inspired by two emotionally charged events that I attended in Toronto and in London that drew attention to the parallels between ethno-national theatre produced in different western cultures, this thesis investigates the background, mandates, and key works of two leading theatre companies in order to compare their dramatic strategies. Using data from published and unpublished scripts, published reviews and interviews, archival video where available, and the companies鈥 press and public material through their websites, this thesis argues that comparing theatre companies across ethno-national contexts can reveal insights about how familiar dramatic strategies such as the absurd, fantastical, spectral, and audience interaction, have additional import in identity-centred work.
Master's Student Supervision
Theses completed in 2010 or later are listed below. Please note that there is a 6-12 month delay to add the latest theses.
In this thesis, I examine the online performance work of Rupi Kaur from feminist,postcolonial and performance studies lenses. Where other studies have focused on the literaryqualities of Kaur鈥檚 poetry, especially in terms of its aesthetics and the debates these sparkamongst critics, I focus here on the transformative power of her poetry performances. Rupi Kauris a bold, unapologetic agent for progressive social change. In this thesis I explore how thepowerful imagery and themes of her written work combine with her online public performances.In particular, I analyze her choices about costume, facial expressions and bodily gestures, vocalintonations, Kaur鈥檚 use of rhythm and pacing along with other performative elements. Asanalyzing her entire oeuvre is beyond the scope of this project, I focus on two of her mostpublicly performed and well-known poems: 鈥渢imeless鈥 (2017) and 鈥渉ome (2017). I base myarguments about her performance choices on contemporary reviews from those who witnessedthese performances live and on close analyses of her public performances of theseaforementioned works during her 2016 TEDxTalk and interviews at CBC Q in Canada and TheTonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in the U.S.
In this thesis, I examine Vancouver-based, Canadian choreographer and dancer Crystal Pite鈥檚 artistic approach as a dance theatre artist with a focus on her multi-award winner work Betroffenheit (2015). Pite founded her dance theatre company Kidd Pivot in 2002. Since then she and the performers with whom she has collaborated have created Lost Action (2006), Dark Matters (2009), The You Show (2010), The Tempest Replica (2011), and Betroffenheit, all while gaining international fame and attention. In this thesis, I am most interested in the latter. Betroffenheit was co-created with Pite and actor Jonathon Young, co-founder and artistic director of Vancouver鈥檚 innovative and multi-award-winning Electric Company Theatre. Pite鈥檚 choreography integrates theatricality, movement, music, Young鈥檚 autobiographical narrative and text, and visual design. For this reason, I argue that Betroffenheit brings together the predominant properties of what Hans Thies Lehmann has termed postdramatic theatre. It blends theatrical elements, dance traditions, spoken text, and other performance genres. While Pite has often been connected to dance theatre, I argue here that Betroffenheit can be generatively read as postdramatic theatre. In order to discuss the relationship between dance theatre and postdramatic theatre, I will focus on Hans Thies Lehmann鈥檚 Postdramatic Theatre. Most prominently, my study demonstrates how reading the performance as postdramatic theatre helps to highlight the production鈥檚 numerous theatrically performative elements. Through investigating scholarly articles, book reviews, national and international performance reviews, and interviews, I aim to provide a deeper understanding of how Betroffenheit productively trouble boundaries between dance and theatre.
This is a study of DramaWay 鈥 a Toronto-based company that facilitates creative arts programming for individuals with special needs. Founded in 1999, this company has grown and developed to provide a sought after service for the disability community in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). While there are other companies in Canada providing similar opportunities, I interrogate DramaWay鈥檚 distinctive approach within the broader context. More particularly, I investigate how DramaWay鈥檚 praxis contributes to the continuing development of disability theatre in Canada. Their work, I argue, merits more scholarly and critical attention than they have thus far garnered in the broader literature concerning disability performance in Canada and abroad. In this thesis I build from the insights of this broader scholarly field to provide an in-depth analysis of DramaWay鈥檚 history, artistic praxis and current educational infrastructure. Through my examination of archival materials, as well as information gathered through formal interviews with DramaWay鈥檚 artistic director, staff, volunteers and performers, I conclude that DramaWay鈥檚 praxis in presenting the talent of performers with special needs provides a unique and valuable contribution to disability theatre in Canada.
At Anglophone Canada鈥檚 four professional farm theatres, performance often foregrounds relations between beings and landscapes in unusually rich and striking ways. In this thesis I argue that the success of these theatres lies largely in their ability to connect audiences affectively to the specific natural environments of their performance sites or regions, and to embody the stories held within these respective rural spaces. More particularly, they share the stories of two land-hungry eras: the settling of what is now Canadian soil by European colonizers, and the transformation of farming culture since 1950, including the back-to-the-land movement of the nineteen sixties and seventies. Four questions guide the analysis. What do the histories, geographies, mandates, programming and other artistic choices of these farm theatres reveal about each theatre's relationship with the land on which they perform? Do the theatres share any common impulses? What distinguishes their efforts and aesthetics? How does the land itself perform? Research presented in this study builds from spatial thought in theatre studies, archival research on the four theatres and their histories, inquiry into the material history of the theatres鈥 sites, and performance analyses of select productions. More particularly, I provide close readings of a single night鈥檚 offering in each theatre鈥檚 2013 season. This includes, Peter Anderson鈥檚 Head Over Heels at the Caravan Farm Theatre near Armstrong, B.C.; the collective creation Beyond The Farm Show at the Blyth Festival Theatre in the village of Blyth, Ontario; Andrew Moodie鈥檚 The Real McCoy at 4th Line Theatre in Millbrook, Ontario; and both Shakespeare鈥檚 As You Like It and the Iliad by Fire by Ken Schwartz (from 亚洲天堂r) at Two Planks and Passion in Canning, Nova Scotia. The thesis brings together research that demonstrates how the material evolution of Canada is deeply tied to farming. It charts how the theatres considered here are similarly connected, and posits a new field of agro-poetics, to which these four companies鈥 respective aesthetic innovations and animations of sites are contributing.
The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between empowerment, feeling, and performance by analyzing the act 1 finales from two Broadway musicals: 鈥淒efying Gravity鈥 from the 2003 production of Wicked and 鈥淥ne Day More鈥 from the 1987 production of Les Mis茅rables. A genre of performance in which feelings, of empowerment and otherwise, are generated and circulated in amplified ways, the Broadway musical provides a productive site to investigate the relationship between empowerment and feeling; moreover, both 鈥淒efying Gravity鈥 and 鈥淥ne Day More鈥 are signature numbers frequently associated with empowerment. To complete my analyses, I use an interdisciplinary approach which combines theatre and performance studies, affect theory, and social science-based arguments about empowerment in order to demonstrate how affect theory gives us valuable language to analyze the constellation of artistic elements which contribute to the numbers鈥 affective power. Building from this work, I suggest that both numbers perform empowerment by emphasizing power and change, two characteristics which have been highlighted as essential in empowerment scholarship. Ultimately, I argue that sensations of empowerment become the primary point of connection between stage and auditorium through performance.
This thesis investigates Headlines Theatre Company鈥檚 use of simulcast online video broadcasts of their forum theatre events through two case studies, Here and Now (2005) and after homelessness... (2009). I consider the place of these broadcast鈥檚 within Headlines鈥 Artistic Director David Diamond鈥檚 particular practice, Theatre for Living (TfL) and its aim to create community-based dialogue. Through digital performance theorist Steve Dixon鈥檚 four categories of interactivity, I explore how the online viewer鈥檚 participation in the forum event is filtered via the use of web-actors, and the complications this has had for the broader TfL mandate. I analyse the web-actors鈥 function using Dixon鈥檚 concept of 鈥淭he Digital Double鈥, to explore how the role they have in the forum event is akin to that of avatars. This analysis draws primarily from David Diamond鈥檚 published works, personal journals and reports following each production as well as recorded broadcasts of the two case-study performances. Read together with current scholarship of performance and digital technology, I argue that these case studies suggest how technology both has and has not served the TfL mandate and consider how Headlines鈥 practice is complicated by simulcast online video broadcasts.
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